A TRIBUTE TO JEROME ROBBINS

By Patricia Boccadoro

PARIS, 24 OCTOBER 2008  The visit of
the New York City Ballet also coincided
with the tenth anniversary of Jerome Robbins' death, and after the ballets
presented by the American company, the Paris Opera Ballet paid their own
special tribute to the American choreographer, the man who considered the
Paris Opera as his second home.

Jerome RobbinsPhoto: Elliot

A programme of three of Robbins' most popular works
was given at the Palais Garnier together with a creation by Benjamin
Millepied, a French-born dancer who joined the New York troupe in 1995,
and who made his debut under Robbins' directorship. It proved to be an
unexpectedly exciting evening, illustrating that the strengths of the
French company at the present time lie less in the individual performances
of the 'official' étoiles than in the general high level of the
troupe.

The first ballet presented was En Sol, set to
Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, and restaged for the French
company in 1975 when Robbins came to work with the dancers himself. It is
a light and joyous piece which follows no particular story line and seeks
no dramatic effects and was lightheartedly danced by Emilie Cozette and
Karl Paquette, the latter appearing more relaxed and at ease than his
partner. Indeed, this was a metamorphosed Karl Paquette. Slimmer, more
graceful and considerably more attentive to his partner than in the past,
his dancing was a revelation.

But the great surprise came with Benjamin Millepied's
second creation for the company, Triade, set to a score by Nico
Muhly. The interpretation by Marie-Agnès Gillot, Laetitia Pujol and corps
de ballet member, Marc Moreau was outstanding, although Audric Bezard,
sujet, pained somewhat next to the brilliance of his three colleagues. The
work, choreographically speaking, was better than Millepied's first piece
for the company, but he still didn't break any new ground. The 'walk,
walk, walk, grapple grapple, and hey, everyone change partners' would have
been most tiresome had it not been for the interpreters who, one felt,
were injecting their own emotion and personality into their roles. The
aggressive, hostile looks have been seen countless times before, and,
given interpreters with less dramatic presence and inferior technique, the
impact of the work would have been greatly reduced. Some people complained
about the accompanying score, but the performance was so enthralling, one
scarcely took notice of it.

In contrast, In the Night, set to a Chopin
score, which entered the company's repertoire in 1989 and was immortalized
by Monique LoudiÃ¨res and Manuel Legris in Dominique Delouche's 1992 film,
Like the birds, was cast very unevenly. It started out on the
highest possible note with Myriam Ould-Braham and Emmanuel Thibault in the
first poetic and intensely romantic pas de deux. There was an aura about
them the instant they appeared, an electricity in the air which dissipated
when they left, leaving a sense of loss. Their dancing was perfection,
from the gossamer soft lifts, the subtle emotion conveyed, to the total
beauty of each movement.

The crash down to earth was harsh indeed with the
second pas de deux, more difficult to perform than it appears and
needing technicians of a far superior quality than Stéphanie Romberg and
Christophe Duquenne. They simply couldn't make it. Likewise, the third
pas de deux, interpreted by two otherwise very fine dancers,
Eleonora Abbagnato and Stéphane Bullion, the latter far too inexpressive,
was disappointing.

Abbagnato, however, came into her own in The
Concert, a comic masterpiece dealing with the secret fantasies of a
group of people who have come to listen to a concert. She was extremely
funny and natural as the Ballerina, a role which enabled her to
demonstrate her gifts as a remarkable character dancer. Emmanuel Hoff
thoroughly enjoyed himself as the hen-pecked husband, albeit as one with
murderous designs on his insufferably bossy wife, brilliantly portrayed by
Celine Talon. Simon Valastro, an outstanding classical dancer, proved
extraordinary in the role of 'shy boy', very bashful and awkward, while a
handful of a dramatically under-rehearsed corps de ballet, with
always one out of step or out of tune, had the audience in fits of
giggles.

Jerome Robbins: The
ConcertPhoto: Sebastien Mathe

And while the ballet, set to Chopin's Pièces pour
piano with arrangements by Clare Grundman, was extremely easy to
enjoy, one cannot over emphasize the excellent musical choices and the
fact that the fun is never to the detriment of the music. Pianist Vessela
Pelovska was particularly outstanding, not only for her sensitive playing,
but also for the fact that she actually became an integral part of the
work, completely at one with the dancers.

It goes without saying that the three Robbins ballets
had been carefully supervised by Jean-Pierre Frohlich, member of the
Robbins Rights Trust, and maitre de ballet of the American company since
1990.

Patricia Boccadoro writes on dance in Europe.
She has contributed to The Guardian, The Observer and Dancing Times and
was dance consultant to the BBC Omnibus documentary on Rudolf Nureyev. Ms.
Boccadoro is the dance editor for Culturekiosque.com